Sunday, December 11, 2011

Friday afternoon, my Grandpa Henry Yoder passed away in his home. This past week was especially rough. My Aunts and Uncle stayed with Grandpa and Grandma and gave lots of wonderful care. I was thankful for their frequent communication to the rest of the family, which made me feel like I was not so far away. I grieve especially for my Grandma Polly as she has lost her partner of 66 years. It's hard to imagine her without him.

I've been thinking about my memories of Grandpa, and I've been thinking a lot about childhood memories. Grandpa passed on his love of games, and I distinctly remember him teaching us to play games (specifically Rook). He liked to do tricks to amaze us, like "blowing up" his bicep. Or pulling a string between his nose and mouth. He was frugal, and I remember a reunion when he told us we could use one square of toilet paper for #1 and two squares for #2. Of course, there are lots more.

Monday, December 5, 2011

I have a recipe to add to your holiday baking list. I saw it on Pinterest and made it this weekend. It's super easy. So easy, in fact, it's almost embarrassing. And, it doesn't take many ingredients. It's sweet, salty and crunchy. Addictive and delicious.

Yesterday, Tyler and I went on a Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt. It was my secret ploy to get him to burn off some energy. Even though it was nice and warm, it was very windy outside. We found everything but people throwing a football and another family on a walk. The only people we saw outside, in fact, were men working with their grills or smokers or fryers. :)

I also made a Treasure Hunt for him. I got a kick out of Aubrey "reading" his clues.

In the evening, we joined Ted and Sue at Hesston College for dinner. I am so thankful for family and friends near and far. Love you all! I hope you enjoyed the blessing of good food and good fellowship too.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Aubrey is 22 months old. She loves to do puzzles, color, watch Sesame Street or listen to an Elmo CD, jump off of anything she can, climb onto whatever she can, play "side" (outside), and read books. She is working on asking "nicely" for Elmo (instead of screaming...repeatedly). Oh, and did I mention that she loves Sesame Street? :)

She is ready for the cold weather that just blew in...

She is talking in more two to three word sentences. Many of them start with, "Mommy, need..." Though more words are clear, she still doesn't say Tyler's name...

Another milestone we are celebrating is my sister Lynette in her pregnancy. She is 33 weeks and a couple days along. Hooray!

Last night, we enjoyed spending the evening with the Pankratz family. Of course, we enjoyed delicious food. Besides the big pot of yummy chili that Michelle made, we both made some sides, including a few "themed" items.

This spider cheeseball

Michelle's peanut butter spider cookies and my owl cupcakes.

Followed, of course, by trick or treating. It was a gorgeous evening to be out. The high was in the 70s yesterday, and the evening was still mild and pleasant.

Aubrey can't say "trick or treat," but her thank you and bye bye earned her lots of smiles.

We didn't stay out too long, and everyone was still in good spirits when we returned. Abe was eager to hand out candy at the house, and was quite sweet - looking for trick or treaters to offer candy to.

The little ones wisely gathered around Wayne to enjoy some of their loot.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Like many families, we have an annual tradition of going to a pumpkin patch. Of course, it doesn't always work out the way I envision it.

Our day was all planned out. Tyler's soccer game at 9 am, with the remainder of the day in Hesston including a trip to the pumpkin patch. But, when we arrived at 8:45 for the game and found out that the time was changed to 11:15, we had to change all of our day's plans.

I had my heart set on going to the pumpkin patch that day. So, we still went, but waited until evening. Aubrey was a bit fussy (she started a head cold this week), about 10 minutes before they closed, Tyler told me that he was sooooo hungry ("because, I'm always hungry, Mom"), and Wayne was not terribly excited about going to begin with...so, perhaps it was okay that we didn't have a whole lot of time there this year. Believe it or not, everyone did seem to enjoy themselves while we were there.

While Tyler practices soccer, Aubrey and I walk the paths through the woods or around the pond. At Thursday evening's soccer practice, a 4 year-old girl cozied up to Aubrey. Aubrey was not excited to have another little mommy trying to herd her around, so it was hard to get a good picture of the two of them. But, I took a few pictures anyway. It was a great evening to be outside, enjoying the crisp fall weather.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Came across this website today...and not only are the recipes intriguing, I really enjoyed her writing. And writing about bribing her kids reminded me of my recent post about Tyler's incentive chart. I never said that "my kid will never"__________, but I have done and said things I didn't think that I would. :)

In any case, she has some fun and tasty-looking seasonal recipes that I'd like to try too...

Full disclosure here - I'm only allowing myself to eat sugar (and things that are high in carbs) one day a week...so I don't bake or make sweets nearly as often as I used to. So, I may not get to these...but a girl can dream. :) (And make things for other people).

Sunday, October 16, 2011

At 21 months, Aubrey is talking more (in words we can understand) :) - and on October 1, started nodding yes and saying "uh huh" instead of saying "no" in answer to every question. This was quite a happy thing for Wayne and I, as it makes communicating much easier!

Elmo and "Coco" (cookie monster) have captured Aubrey's heart. No, to be more accurate, are quite an obsession of hers. She often asks to watch Elmo (Sesame Street), listen to Elmo in the car, and read Elmo books at bedtime and in between.Her blankie and pacifier at nap and bedtime are essentials.

She is eating more foods, but is generally adamant that she feed herself.

She is still enamored with dogs, and really, any animals. She also loves babies. She gets a little pout quite often, but when she thinks a baby or animal is sweet, she pushes her lower lip out, cocks her head to the side and makes little "ohhh" sounds. It is quite sweet. She gives sweet hugs with a pat, and lots of kisses too - sometimes with her pacifier still in place.

She continues to be a very active girl, with little fear. She keeps us on our toes! :)

Friday night, Ted and Sue came to celebrate Tyler's birthday. We hadn't seen each other since our trip to Indiana, so it was nice to catch up and spend time together.

Tyler, opening a present.

Aubrey, trying on Grandpa Ted's coat.

Tyler had originally requested a peanut cake for his birthday. He explained that he wanted it in the shape of a peanut, with peanut butter frosting. We hadn't made a cake for his birthday party, so I decided to make a cake for Friday night. (I didn't make it in the shape of a peanut, though). I chose a couple of simple recipes that used ingredients I had on hand. So, I was able to make this between doing laundry, soccer practice, baths, supper, etc on Thursday evening. It's that easy! And, it was tasty.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch cake pans with nonstick spray. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk in liquid ingredients until batter is smooth. (I just used my stand mixer, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl frequently). Divide into pans (scant 3 cups each).

Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out wiht a few crumbs still attached, about 28 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Cut around cakes and turn out onto racks. Peel off parchment paper and cool.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Today was rainy and cool and called for a simmering pot of soup. We started making this soup last winter, and it quickly became a favorite of Wayne and mine, and I'm surprised to see that I haven't shared it yet. If you like it a little less spicy, you can omit the red pepper flakes and use a less spicy sausage.

* In the microwave, melt the chocolate chips. Mix well with Oreo crumbs. Spread on waxed paper to cool and then break apart.

* In a 10-inch spring form pan, spread 1 container softened ice cream. ﻿Spread the hot fudge topping on top of the ice cream then sprinkle with the Oreo and chocolate mixture. If you'd like, only sprinkle 2 cups of the crumbs and reserve the remaining to decorate the top of the cake.

* Freeze for at least 30 minutes. Add the second container ice cream. Freeze for at least 4 hours.

* Remove the sides of the spring-form pan. (You may run a little warm water on the side to loosen). Return to freezer until firm.

* Spread Cool Whip evenly over the top and sides and freeze again before decorating.

On Thursday, October 6, Tyler turned 7. Since he had soccer practice on his actual birthday, Wednesday we went out to eat at the restaurant of his choice (barring fast food options). He picked Texas Roadhouse.

Aubrey enjoyed dancing to the music.

We need to practice proper behavior at sit down restaurants...

﻿

On his birthday, I brought treats to his class. I thought it was sweet how excited they all were for a little treat.

He excitedly told me how people had been singing Happy Birthday to him throughout the day.﻿

Opening his own tennis racquet. He wondered whether we had just wrapped up a racquet we already had. ;) I explained that Daddy played through high school and college and now he would be able to learn with his own kid-sized racquet.

Saturday, he celebrated with his friends at All Star Sports. We had intended to play mini-golf and ride the go-carts. Both outdoor activities. But, after a summer of drought...yesterday afternoon, it rained and rained. Sooo, we adjusted our plans to indoor activities. Laser Tag and arcade games.

Taking a break to eat.

Opening presents.

Back at home, the Pankratz's and Jaberg's joined us for ice cream cake.